Chapter 147 : Training Camp II
Furihata laid his body on the tatami floor, closing his eyes while rubbing his stomach slowly. His action was followed by several other players who wanted to enjoy the morning air and relax their minds. There, they could hear birds chirping on this tranquil morning, which brought them a kind of peace that they had never felt in Tokyo.
They were glad that the team was able to hold the training camp in this place. Even though Onjuku Beach was a famous tourist designation, they didn't really mind. In fact, they prefer this kind of lively atmosphere instead of the isolated place where they have to put all their focus on training. At least, here, they could still enjoy the sea.
After a few moments in peace, Furihata opened his eyes slowly, trying to gather his thoughts. As he gazed out at the clear, cloudless sky, he suddenly thought of something.
"Senpai, where did Alex-san and Riko-senpai eat their breakfast? I haven't seen them yet."
Hearing that, the other players also noticed the lack of female figures here in the room and turned their heads to Hyuga, asking the obvious question silently. The shooting guard just twitched the corner of his mouth speechlessly before he finally replied, "I don't know, okay? Why don't you ask Koganei? He is the last one who had contact with Riko, after all."
And just like that, all the attention suddenly changed once again to the cat-like small forward.
"Same here." Koganei shrugged nonchalantly. "I mean, the last thing she said was relax and wait until she came back. So, why bother?"
Furihata had sweat dropped on his face. However, he couldn't blame Koganei's attitude. Even though he didn't know what kind of torture Riko set up for Koganei, looking at the red bruise all over Koganei's arm, it was understandable for the small forward to feel resentment.
"Ah, Kuroko-kun! Don't fall asleep!" Kiyoshi suddenly reminded the blue-haired boy who was half-asleep on the floor. "Come on! You will have a digestive problem here."
"Yes, Senpai.." Kuroko replied, rubbing his eyes while still yawning big.
Several of them snickered at how those two acted. Even though Kiyoshi and Kuroko were not close to each other, the senpai still nagged his kouhai to death just like a mother did to her son. And Kuroko, just like a good son himself, followed Kiyoshi's order and rose from his position, still with his sleepy eyes.
"Oi, Kuroko! If you cannot hold on from the morning training, how could you last long enough until the end? This is just the first day, you know?" Kagami complained half-heartily.
"I know…" The blue-haired boy replied. "But not everyone was used to waking up too early, you know?"
Several of them nodded in agreement and understanding. The morning session earlier began at 5.30 a.m. For anyone who was used to staying longer in bed, waking up that early to do a set of arduous exercises was not something easy. That's why when they had time to relax like this, their sleepiness went back and attacked the body again, trying to force them into a lazy state.
Fortunately (or unfortunately for the players), this kind of relaxing atmosphere didn't last long as the wood-frame door was opened forcefully in the same manner as Koganei did before. The difference is, instead of the pitiful Koganei, the one who entered the room was Riko with the evil smile plastered on her face.
"Well, have you had enough rest?"
"No…" They all groaned. Seeing her menacing smile, all the exhaustion suddenly came up once again. "Let us rest a little! Don't you see Kuroko's pitiful state? He is about to pass out, for God's sake!"
Riko just snorted a little at that. "Don't be overdramatic. He will be alright. Come on! Meet me outside after you help clean up the mess."
"Yes…."
Even with a lot of grumbles, they still rose from their spot and did what Riko said. After finished cleaning up the room, they went out just to find Alex had already waited there.
"Well, hello there!" The blonde woman greeted cheerfully. "How is it? Ready to train again?"
"Noooo..."
Alex just chuckled richly at their reaction. "Don't worry. It is not on the beach anymore. We will go to the court nearby. Let's go!"
"Oh, not the beach?"
"Finally! Man, I miss the court!"
They followed Alex eagerly, seeming to forget the lazy energy before. They were too curious about what kind of court the coach prepared to help them train. However, they were bound to disappoint, as it was a pretty normal court, no different compared with the court in their school.
"Why do you brat sighing?" Riko asked. "Do you know this is one of the best courts nearby? Be grateful, okay!"
"Hai, hai…"
"Tch. Ungrateful brats." Riko clicked her tongue in annoyance. Alex just chuckled a little at their conversation, had already been used to it. "Speaking of the next training, we will have another helper. He will arrive soon. Ah, there he goes! Here!"
Everyone turned their heads around, trying to see who the helper Riko mentioned. There, they could see a middle-aged man wearing sporty attire and dark sunglasses coming out of the car, blinding all of them with his coolness. For the first year, no one knew who was that. However, several senpai recognized the man easily.
"Papa Aida?"
A subtle vein popped up on the man's forehead. "Who the hell gave you permission to call me Papa, you brat? You are not my son-in-law, so call me Kagetora-san!" He roared out loud, making everyone speechless with his sudden outburst. However, he hasn't done it yet.
"Speaking of which, you all have stayed together in this inn for a day, huh?" Then, suddenly, he picked up a small gun from his back threateningly. "So, tell me. Which one of you brats tried to peek up to her when she took a bath? Confess here!"
"Hiii! Calm down, Kagetora-san! Nobody tried to peek!"
"Yes!"
"I mean, if we wanted to do that, the target should be Alex-san, not your daughter!"
An awkward silence suddenly dropped dead on the spot as all the eyes turned on Koganei. Furihata himself twitched the corner of his lips exasperatedly, not believing Koganei's loose mouth would take action in this situation. For a moment, only the sound of the wind breezing outside could be heard, as Koganei whimpered on the spot, realizing his mistake. Fortunately, he was saved by Riko, the unexpected savior who reminded her dad to focus.
"Stop it, Dad!" The girl blushed in embarrassment. "Don't be too overbearing!"
"But Riko-tan!" The man cried comically. "How could you say that when one of them admitted his plan to peek at you?!"
"Shut up, Dad!" Now, her words were accompanied with action, as she punched her dad straight to the waist.
"OUCH!"
After that, she turned around, ignoring her father's pitiful state, and looked at her players. "I will deal with you later, Koganei-kun. Just see." She ignored the cowardly whimper from the small forward and talked again. "As you can see, he is my father, Kagetora Aida, and he will help us train for the next four days. So, I hope you can get along well."
"Yoroshiku onegaishimasu, Kagetora-san!" Everyone bowed their head deeply.
Riko nodded her head slightly. "Well, since we have done the physical training this morning, we will spend the afternoon training your personal ability training. Each of your training sessions will be different, so please, listen to the arrangement carefully."
All of them straightened their backs, putting all their focus on the girl. After listening for a while, they all nodded in a satisfied manner, and couldn't help but marvel at Riko and Alex's thoughtfulness for arranging the training. It was pretty straightforward, yet aimed directly at the players or the team's shortcomings.
For example, Izuki's main training is to find his best spot to shoot and improve it to the point he is comfortable scoring under tight defense so it could be used in the game. For Izuki, this was his problem for a long time. He could only organize and facilitate, but couldn't participate in the offense directly. Such a weakness, facing a strong opponent, would be exploited mercilessly.
Another example was Hyuga. The captain was good at catch-and-shoot, but he didn't have the mobility like Furihata to run all over the court and create space for himself. However, he had the physical advantage here as one of the strongest players in Seirin. His training was to improve his accuracy under confrontation and let him get used to the feeling of it.
There was also Kagami with his left-hand handle and shooting consistency training, Mitobe with post-up training, and even Kawahara and Fukuda with their training too. However, the most unique one was Kuroko. With his misdirection ability, it seemed the coach felt pity he only used it to pass the ball. So, he was trained to shoot the ball as quickly and as accurately as possible. Alex and Riko wanted to transform Kuroko into an off-the-ball shooter just like Furihata.
'If the training is successful, Phantom will transform into a lethal weapon for the team.'
As for Furihata himself, he was assigned as the defender together with Tsuchida, Kiyoshi, and Koganei. However, it wasn't that simple. They were assigned to defend the one they were less comfortable with like Furihata guarding Kagami, Tsuchida guarding Izuki, or Kiyoshi guarding Hyuga. This kind of mismatch was arranged deliberately by Alex after considering one thing.
"Our team's tallest player is Kiyoshi-kun with 195 cm. Compared to Yosen or Shutoku who had at least 2 players with a height of more than 200 cm, we are at a disadvantage here. So, I want you all to get used to facing taller and stronger opponents, okay?"
That's what Alex said to the team. They also understand this cruel fact, so no one makes a fuss about it. Having said that, it still wasn't easy for them to adapt to the intensity.
"Come on, Bastard! I cannot feel you at all! Are you sure you are guarding me right?"
"Shut up, Red!" Furihata snarked. "You haven't scored under my nose even for once! Do it first then brag!" He gritted his teeth, trying to push away Kagami from his position in a post-up situation. Even though he was a good defender, Furihata had almost no experience handling a post-up game. That's why he found this situation so troublesome.
Fortunately, the same could be said for Kagami. Since he wasn't allowed to dunk or break through the right side forcefully, he could only use his rusty left hand to handle the ball, which wasn't ideal for dealing with an active defender like Furihata who always tried to steal the ball.
*Clank!*
"Yossha! See that, Red! You couldn't even score!"
"Shut up, Bastard!"
Riko and Alex who saw the heated conversation from the sideline didn't intervene. In fact, they even smiled, encouraging their interaction. They knew for Furihata and Kagami, this was how they interacted with each other. As long as it didn't escalate into a fight, they would let them be.
They were also satisfied enough with the players' performance.
"Their movement is getting lighter and sharper. It seems training in the sand is a good decision." Riko exclaimed with a satisfied smile.
"Yeah." Alex nodded in agreement. "Let's see how far they could go in the next four days."
Not just the coach, but the players also felt the sudden improvement. Even though a lot of them had difficulties adapting to their new training, they still did it with full enthusiasm. And in the next two hours, one player finally made a breakthrough.
*Splash!*
"Oh! Nice shoot, Hyuga!"
"Yeah! Kiyoshi couldn't react at all!"
"Is that your new move?!"
Hyuga who just scored the last ball couldn't help but feel smug. "Yeah! Kagetora-san taught me how to do it. I will call the move 'Barrier Jumper'!"
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Author note :
If you want to support me more, you can visit my Patreon page on patreon(.)com/ZetaFaes
You can read this fanfiction up to chapter 167 on that page. Also, you can read my other fanfiction, Diamond no Ace: The Prince of Hitter up to chapter 28 too.
Thank you! :)
-Zeta Faes-